But the red began to change.
Lucas aimed. The red target was enormous, almost too easy. He fired a single burst from his M4A1. Headshot. The player dropped instantly.
Then his phone buzzed. And buzzed again. And again. A constant, aggressive vibration. He crawled over and flipped it over.
“Dude, did you get a new gaming chair?” Diego joked over voice chat.
The next morning, Diego and Sofia found Lucas’s account online. He was still playing. His rank was skyrocketing. But his kill messages were strange: (Lucas sees the blood). They tried to call him. No answer.
His own reflection appeared on the black mirror of the screen, but his eyes… his eyes were glowing red.
Lucas tried to look away from his phone, but he couldn't. The red was inside his eyes now. He blinked, but the world outside the game was also changing. His bedroom walls seemed to pulse with a faint, angry crimson. The shadows in the corner of his room moved like dripping blood.
That’s when he saw the ad. It popped up on a shady gaming forum he’d been browsing.
He hesitated for only a second before clicking the link. The download was a small APK file, not from the official store. A warning flashed on his screen: "This app can harm your device." He ignored it and tapped "Install."
Then the match started.
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